Each iteration of this monthly series will focus on one specific artwork, artist, or theme found in our current exhibition, welcoming families for a brief tour followed by an engaging art activity developed specifically for children, ages 5-12.

Writing with Sculpture will have children colourfully sculpt their favourite letters, words or poetry through the use of various mediums, linking to exhibiting artist Mary Scott.

Please join us for a very exciting Lit Flicks program featuring Contemporary Calgary’s Senior Curator Lisa Baldissera who will introduce films by Moyra Davey and John Latham. Within her introduction Lisa will also discuss the curatorial process for Extratextual, which she co-curated with Joanne Bristol. Extratextual will be on exhibit until January 21st and explores ways in which modes of writing, as well as concepts of textuality and narrative have informed artistic production.

Lisa Baldissera has worked in curatorial roles in public art galleries throughout Western Canada and as an independent curator, consultant, and writer for over 15 years. She was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Chief Curator at the Mendel Art Gallery and has produced more than fifty exhibitions of local, Canadian, and international artists. She holds MFAs in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and in Art from the University of Saskatchewan, and is currently a PhD student at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has served on contemporary art juries across Canada, including the RBC Canadian Painting Competition, the Sobey Art Award, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the British Columbia Arts Council and was a Professional Affiliate at the University of Saskatchewan as well as a contributing editor for the Arts Canada Institute online art book series, where she produced a publication on Emily Carr.

Moyra Davey is an artist based in New York, and whose work comprises the fields of photography, film, and writing. She has produced several narrative videos, most recently Wedding Loop (2017) as part of her contribution to this year’s dOCUMENTA 14. She is the author of numerous publications including Burn the Diaries and The Problem of Reading, and is the editor of Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood. Davey has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2016); Camden Arts Centre, London (2014); Kunsthalle Basel (2010); and Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2008). Her work is found in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Tate Modern in London. She was awarded the Anonymous was a Woman Award in 2014.

Held over the lunch hour this series invites Calgarians working in the downtown core to enjoy their lunch while listening to talks and presentations by artists whose work blends modes of writing with the visual arts.

Please join us for a very exciting Lunch Hour Author Readings featuring Barbara Sutherland and Richard Harrison who will discuss their collaboration on the Print(ed) Word project. Alberta Printmakers Society(A/P) and Loft 112 initiated Print(ed) Word: a collaboration uniting writers and printmakers to create artists’ books which feature artist interpretations from the text of new writing by 12 Calgary authors and poets to enhance, alter and illuminate a reader’s journey.

Barbara Sutherland is an artist and educator whose practice involves a cross-discipline approach to working with cloth, sculpture and installation. She is drawn to working with cloth because of its history as part of our intimate lives, and its place in the development of the spaces outside us; the architectural form within which we live, work and play. She has received numerous awards including a SSHRC Graduate Scholarship and a Governor General’s Academic Medal. Her work has been exhibited across Canada, in Europe and Australia and she has worked in collaboration with other artists, writers and composers.

Richard Harrison is a multiple-award-winning poet, essayist, and editor. His most recent book, On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood, has been awarded the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. The book was shortlisted for the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and won the Stephan G. Stephansson Alberta Poetry Prize. His six books of poetry include Big Breath of a Wish, poems about his daughter’s acquisition of language, and Hero of the Play, poems in the language of hockey, launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has published on literary criticism, cosplay, spoken word poetry, and mathematics. As well as hockey and literature (about which he co-edited the collection Now is the Winter), Richard also contributes to the scholarship on the superhero: with MRU colleague Lee Easton, he co-authored the book of essays, Secret Identity Reader (2010). Richard teaches composition, creative writing (poetry), and comics and graphic novels.

Alberta Printmakers facilitates contemporary interpretations of print media in culture. It promotes printmaking as an evolving, contemporary medium by providing artists and the public with access to production facilities, education programs, research opportunities, lectures and exhibitions of new work. A/P promotes printmaking as an evolving, contemporary medium by providing artists and the public with access to production facilities, education programs, research opportunities, lectures and exhibitions of new work.http://www.albertaprintmakers.com

Loft 112 is a literary creative space in Calgary’s East Village that serves as a centre for writers and artists of all kinds. It is a creative hive where ideas are developed, a place where established and emerging writers, readers, artists and poets are supported, a place where unheard voices are given a platform and a place of collaboration. Loft 112 is an inclusive, affordable space.www.loft112.org

LOCATION / HOURS

Contemporary Calgary no longer operates at 117 8 Avenue SW. Our administrative offices are located at 105 12 Avenue SE, Suite 900. Public programs and exhibitions are held at a variety of central Calgary locations. Please visit What's On for programming details

Contemporary Calgary is located on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta. The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.